No it doesn't. There are a lot of things Taylor May or May not have done that a head injury does not justify. That is not my point, I am saying his injury may explain why he was not as good this year as in the past.

trying to look for a reason as to how in the hell our line will be better next season after losing two tackles to the NFL. I can understand that our interior will have an extra season of "gel" time but to say next year's unit will be better seems cautiously optimistic.

Schofield isn't an NFL tackle. He has NFL measurables. But he gets beat on the regular - both overpowered in the run game (watch him get absolutely blown up on the red zone speed option last night) and run by in the passing game. I think NFL DEs will handle him. I hope I'm very wrong

I agree on Schofield. I don't see much difference between him and Mark Huyge, and nobody was touting Huyge as an NFL tackle. I do think Schofield will get drafted late, but he hasn't been particularly productive as a blocker.

I really think the biggest leap for players comes from their freshman to their sophomore year, or their first year of significant playing time to the second. I think it's reasonable to expect that Glasgow, Kalis, Magnuson, and maybe Bosch will be significantly better. It will be interesting to see who else steps in, since Braden never saw the field despite being hyped as a potential starter.

I can hear all of the excuses now: need time to gell, youth, experience. With this staff, I can see the same nightmare we've lived on the inside, being revisited on the outside. And you are right, the interior issues will be improved, but not all magically disappear.

As a Michigan fan, I appreciate how much he's contributed to the team. As a objective observer though, I think he still has a ways to go to keep his temper and emotions in check. I hope he doesn't turn into a Suh type player who has incredible talent but keeps hurting his team at inopportune times with dumb penalties. Either way though, I'd take him on my team any day.

Pro Hoke, meh borges, probably anti funk, not much different than before. Borges called a good first half and didnt have anything to counter K State's adjustments after the half. Spielman hit the nail on the head about when you have no run game you have to resort to ridiculous ways to move the ball with screens and sweeps. It only works for so long.
Honestly the defense was the bigger issue. Not only were they scoring every drive, they were taking huge chunks of time off the clock each time. I felt they had Lockett open for a TD any time they wanted. The only time we got stops was when they made unforced errors.

I would venture a guess that he's probably right. Most of these guys were the best players on their teams, and usually the best player on the team is a captain. I've seen kids who were assholes be voted captains when they're the star of the team. The thing is, you look for different things from captains. They don't have to be valedictorians and volunteer at charities all the time. Sometimes you're looking for leadership from their play on the field.

Hold on. Did you play sports? How often was the best player on your team NOT a captain in high school? I'll hang up and listen (no I won't). No, there isn't "data" on this, but that's because I don't feel like going back through every player on our roster, culling their high school newspaper stories (I doubt Rivals reports on captaincy). . . I mean, come on. It's a pretty valid point, and one that is (fairly) obvious to anyone who's played football past the middle school level.

Not sure how it's a ridiculous assumption that most 4/5 star recruits were high school captains.

Also not sure why it's a ridiculous point that there is nothing Lewan has demonstrated at any point in his career--at least publicly with on-field or off-field conduct--that he was deserving of being a captain.

I'm with you, though; pretty much every single scholarship athlete I've been around was a captain in high school and even on club teams. The difference between a pretty good high school athlete and a D1 prospect (especially a Michigan level prospect) means they always have a leg up when it comes to leadership directly related to the sport, as Magnus mentioned above.

This is something that none of us will ever know, but it is something that I thought about a lot this year. As much as people may not like to admit it, I still think the biggest problem on this year's team was the lack of leadership. The moment I felt this way was when Denard came to the MSU game. When things started to go south, Denard was going around trying to fire up the guys, who all seemed like they were just standing around.

Like I said, this comes with no direct interaction to the team, but I really wonder whether these guys had the leadership skills necessary to turn things around and keep things from turning south. Somebody has to turn it around next year.

I'd like to see 1000% less taunting and trashtalking from just about everybody on Michigan's football team. Throughout the season, Lewan was one of the least of my concerns in the realm of "ugly trashtalk that might draw a flag." The MSU game excepted. The MSU game is always excepted. You don't bring a rule book to a knife fight.

Anyway, he was the Conference OL of the year. For the second straight year. He's not a coach, and he's not the guy who created seven different line combinations in 2013. He's the one constant in all seven line combinations.

Lewan tracked down the defensive back that picked off Shane's pass on the right sideline, saving a touchdown. After the tackle it appeared that he started getting mouthy to a contingent of K State players that huddled up to celebrate the return. It almost seemed as if during this said mouth running, Taylor thought to himself "damn, I'm acting like a moron once again" and decided to retreat. It really wasn't that big of a deal but when you add up this minor incident to a series of others (on the field and off the field) the snowball enlarges.

leaving smart-ass responses. What are you trying to do, impress us with your wit and mind-reading skills? Why try to create drama where none might have existed?

Taylor thought to himself "damn, I'm acting like a moron once again" and decided to retreat. It really wasn't that big of a deal but when you add up this minor incident to a series of others (on the field and off the field) the snowball enlarges.

trying to do, impress us with your copy and paste skills? Do you have any thoughts of your own, or can you formulate a version of the play by play that happened in Lewan's case? Or do you just sit back and leave idiotic responses at the expense of others, who actually step up and attempt to give insight (granted, opinion based) when a poster states he missed the play and wanted a recap.

I am not going to offer a counter opinion because I don't know what transpired any more than you do - one work of fiction is not any better than another. Go watch the clip again, without any predetermination, and tell me you see taunting. Tell me you can read the lips of each player in the vicinity. You have no way of knowing what was said or to whom it was said.

You did not present a recap, you invented a story that includes an imagined dialog to support your viewpoint, and presented that as a recap.

Do you realize that if he weren't on the team he would have to be replaced? That would probably mean moving Magnuson out to OT and finding a replacement at OG. Now do you see how we would miss him? We probably would have had another couple of starting OL lineups without Lewan.

I'm glad for Devin's sake that he came back, but Taylor is definitely one player I won't miss next year. Everything I've heard about him from other students and people who've been out with him is that he's kind of a douchebag. And that's not even taking into account his 3 separate run-ins with the Police

I think Taylor returned with the intention of helping younger guys develop, but when someone is a natural talent like he is, coaching may not be your strongest point. He will be drafted in the first round and do well. My hope is that this year was the low point of Hoke's tenure.

When he did start to turn around it looked like a KSU player gave him a little shot to which he turned around to perhaps confront the player but looked like he instead turned back around and started for the Michigan sideline.

...is that about the 29th time this year that ESPN directors have tried to get isolation cameras on Lewan, to catch him doing something? Has there ever been a college football player who drew this kind of sub-narrative from broadcast producers?

character. Probably not a captain, had he not come back. You can applaud his dedication to the school while still noting that his behavior helped dispell some of the lingering goodwill that remained to a really bad football team.

he had one dumb incident against msu, which was likely a heat of the moment retaliation for past msu transgressions. i applaud him for coming back. he had a hell of a year, again. he was big man on campus (literally) for one more year. to paraphrase bo, you won't ever have a family-type atmosphere again. the nfl is a job.

So if we didn't get to know him a bit over the course of 4 years, we'd slap a lazy, dickish label on him from our couches?

Your statement is probably right -- if he wasn't on our team, we'd probably think he was a punk. But that doesn't support that he's a punk; it supports that sports fans can be smug assholes that draw conclusions based about kids with virtually nothing to back it up.

I'll take 85 Taylor Lewans over 85 Mario Manninghams, who leave early for the NFL. I don't know, but I expect that Lewan's thinking may have been, The guys on this team are my friends; my best friends, and maybe the best friends I will ever have. They want me here, and they want me to be their captain. I am having more fun playing football in Ann Arbor, than I ever will in the NFL. It's a long life to live, and I will never again have the chance to play another year of football for Michigan. I can stay one more year, and finish my degree, nice and neat. Like a real college career. Get a degree from Michigan. Yes, there is a physical risk (for which they tell me I can be insured), but on balance this is what makes me happy...

I want 85 guys like that. I particularly want 85 guys who are all-conference position players.

The thread is about Taylor Lewan. And who is a better exemplar of the player jumping early to the NFL in the past ten years, than Manningham? Who? Name somebody, who I should have used as a better example of the point I was trying to make. And no, you can't use Jason Avant, who I have repeatedly gushed praise for as my favorie Michigan football player of the 21st century.

Section 1 preaches pet issues that belie some personal politics, but nothing warranting that attack in regards to comments in this thread. He's earned whatever reputation he has, but I personally don't remember racism ever being part of that.

apologies. I have plussed Section One plenty of times when the whole board was riding his a**, too. But he dissed Mario Manningham and Tiger Woods in the same thread, and given his Al Sharpton and other past comments, it wasn't a leap.

Still, if he says I got it wrong, I take his word. Apologies, Section One.

I didn't "diss" Manningham. I used him as an example of a Michigan player who jumped early to the NFL. I asked you for a better exemplar. Did you think of one?

And I explained "Tiger Woods." I'll do it one last time. I didn't "diss" Tiger. I used Tiger as a comparative analogy to attention that ESPN has been putting on Taylor Lewan. Tiger, and Lewan, are both figurative victims in my analogy. There wasn't even the vaguest slight aimed at Woods.

Leave me out of your idiotic ramblings. I am not going to play nice with you, when you accuse me of racism. I don't know who you think you can run that on. Not me.

did you watch the reaction from the cheerleaders? It looked more like he was hitting on her. Say, didn't your starting mlb just get suspended for the rose bowl? Ya, you should probably worry about that.

Some times these overlap, some times not. Lewan has one of them, but not sure about the other. In fact, the captains (Avery, Gordon, etc.) didn't seem to have any impact when the season started falling into the tire fire pit.

I think back to the 2005 7-5 team (probably as close to an under-achieving team as this one, given the expectations). That team had Mike Hart and Jake Long and David Harris and Lamarr Woodley, who during the OFF-Season after the bowl loss to Nebraska, took command during off-season work outs and changing the attitude of the team. That team, despite a tough finish, won 11 games. Hart and Long kept the team from totally falling apart after the Horror and Oregon massacre in '07.

I look over the current roster and see no one after Jake Ryan that can bring the PLUS factor (talent AND leadership). We need someone else, besides Ryan, who will step up and lead this team during the off-season.

Brian Griese was right at the banquet when he said: "Take ownership of your team. It’s the decisions you make on a daily basis that matter. This team doesn’t belong to Brady Hoke, as much as I love him. It belongs to you.”

Wow...if he's a poor representation of the University, then we have a lot of poor representatives. Why can't Michigan simply have a bunch of saints and Rhodes Scholars on the team? Is that too much to ask?

If the police report of his actions vis-a-vis Gibbons's accuser are close to accurate -- and I have no reason to believe that they aren't -- then I'd just as soon Lewan not be affiliated with the same university as me.

What looks to my untrained eye to be an actual police report -- without scare quotes or anything -- describes the actions of a man purported to be Lewan. These actions include the intimidation of an alleged rape victim, through the particularly noxious (even if just rhetorical) use of the threat of further rape as a cudgel.

Not all crimes get prosecuted, and not all grossly immoral acts are crimes. I acknowledge my distance from the situation, and I'm open to updating my priors under some new evidence/argumentation. But as things stand now, I'll be happy to see Lewan leave.

Lewan didn't communicate a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g to the purported sexual assault victim. He didn't know her, judging by the police report, and never spoke to her or emailed her or had any other contact with her, and when he encountered a group of people including some athletic coeds, he asked if one of them was the accuser (she wasn't).

So Lewan didn't know what the purported victim even looked like, much less engaging in any "intimidation" of her.

I know that if I had a friend who I knew was being falsely accused of a crime, I'd feel less than generous toward the accuser. This seems to be the case with Lewan. Lewan seems to have judged the case (no charges) correctly, for whatever that is worth (maybe not too much, but it matters not). I don't begrudge Lewan's feelings, especially since he never once communicated them to the person in question.

I feel very, very sorry for Lewan. All accross the internet, at the blogs of our football rivals, at the online screed known as "Washtenaw Watchdogs," even at the nation's garbage-pile "DemocraticUnderground.com" the real, serious lies have been propagated: that there was a rape. That it was covered up. That the investigation was foiled. That Lewan threatened a rape victim with a repeated rape.

It is amazingly shameless garbage.

I do hope that the Washtenaw Watchdog, Douglas Smith gets sued for defamation.

-While I acknowledge no first-hand knowledge of the events, it seems as though you might want to refrain from claiming that no prosecution implies no rape. It doesn't exactly help with one's credibility.

-I was never under the impression that Lewan made his threat directly to the accuser. "Tell your friend that I'll rape her" still seems to lack a certain...moral clarity. Perhaps he was acting out of loyalty to a friend that he truly believed was falsely accused, and perhaps he would have phrased his threat differently upon reflection. Neither consideration remotely excuses his behavior.

The football players aren't the ones dwelling on this four-year-old story. They let it go. There is one real, true outrage in this case, and it is the worldwide 'net-based broadcasting of allegations (not police or prosecutorial allegations) that a Michigan football player was a "rapist" and that Taylor Lewan "intimidated" a complaining witness and threatened a rape. Those assertions are falsehoods.

The real malignancy in this entire case is not any one of the football players; and it certainly is not the purported victim. I got the strong impression that the complainant was honest with the police, and that her honest confusion and the vagaries of the incident all dictated against any prosecution. In the end, as far as I can tell, she did not stretch any testimony to make a case against the accused football player.

No, the real malignancy is Douglas Smith, the Washtenaw Watchdog. Virtually every internet meltdown over this story all links back to that blog.

Inappropriate language used by Taylor Lewan among his friends and acquaintances is a whole lot of nothing compared to his being savaged in national media as quasi-criminal.

A police report is simply a recording of what is told to a police officer by a witness. It is, by definition, hearsay. The contents are obviously troubling, but don't mistake the fact that it is in a police report with the fact that is necessarily true.

He should have drawn a flag, for gender-stereotypification and appearance-based objectification, dehumanizing the little Wildcat as a mere sexual object for male consumption. Quick, somebody call our own Professor MacKinnon!

And a big +1 to you for correct usage of "nay" as an adverb in the OP.

Lewan came back, talked about dedication and leadership. He then went on to "guarantee" the state game. That week he could be seen at Scorekeepers on Thursday Night BEFORE the game. Then we lost to OHIO STATE and the guy goes out after the game and gets in trouble.

Not a leader. Doesn't understand sacrifice. Excited to move on. The younger guys are more dedicated and better leaders. Once we get this house cleaned, and all the players are on the same page, shit will be ok.

A) Being a premier player at a premier program and being the leader is a big responsibility. You lead by example. Do you think a good example is drinking at a bar past midnight 36 hours before the game against state? Could you not just wait for the offseason, or drink beers at home? Easy mature decisions. Ask around, no one ever saw chad henne at bars 2 days before games.

B) Being a premier player at a premier program and being the leader is a big responsibility. You lead by example. Do you think a good example is going out and being around a bar with fans of both teams til 5AM? Could you not just wait for the next day, or drink a few beers at home? Are you not upset about the game that just happenned? I couldn't go out that night. How could he?

that you chose to forego a football scholarship and a free education in order to drink and party...when you were not of legal drinking age, and wouldn't be until your junior year...and you question Lewan's judgment?

Great individual football talent and I wish him well in life, including his upcoming time in the NFL.

Maturity level? In doubt. While we were all grateful that he returned, and he obviously performed on the field, it didn't seem to me like he was ever ready to lead. Did it affect the team? I don't know, but I would not be surprised.